Clapton's Road To Rehabilitation

June 28, 1999

Rock legend Eric Clapton is coming clean about his addictions in the 1970s.

"I know that when I was a full-blown, practicing alcoholic, everyone used to walk around me on eggshells," Clapton, 54, said in an interview with The Sunday Times in London. "There were times when I just took sex with my wife by force and thought that was my entitlement. I had absolutely no concern for other people at all, and I think that what happens in a family is everyone starts to doctor their own roles to make it bearable to live that way," he said.

Clapton was interviewed in Antigua, the Caribbean island where he founded Crossroads Centre, a clinic to treat drug and alcohol abuse.

Clapton, who has not remarried since his 1988 divorce from Patti Boyd, retreated to the island after his son, 4, fell to his death from a New York skyscraper in 1991.

Last week Clapton sold 100 of his guitars at an auction at Christie's in New York, raising more than $5 million for Crossroads. He has said he no longer regards himself as a musician.

Big spender needs a big loan

Elton John, the big-spending singer who accumulates homes, fabulous jewels, top-of-the-range wigs and luxury cars as fast as he makes hits, is seeking a $40 million loan to pay off bills, The Sunday Times reported in London.

John is negotiating with a London finance house, Samuel Montagu, and has agreed to sign over income from future hits as well as proceeds from old ones, the newspaper said, quoting unidentified sources.

The singer, who reportedly spends up to $400,000 a week on credit cards, will also offer his homes in England, France and the United States as collateral.

John, 52, needs most of the money to clear loans outstanding in Britain and the United States, including an $11 million overdraft with an English bank, and a loan of nearly $4 million, the newspaper said.

John, knighted after Candle in the Wind, his reworked song for Princess Diana's funeral, has had a chart success every year since 1971.

The Sunday Times estimated his fortune at $256 million, and his income in the five years to 1996 at $131 million.

Who could be nicer than Travolta?

As a teen-ager, Madeleine Stowe was so enamored with John Travolta, her co-star in The General's Daughter, that she faked being a reporter in order to meet him.

"I actually pretended to be a journalist," Stowe said in an interview in this week's People magazine in New York.

"John's publicist was very nice, but he did say, `John is too busy and, by the way, what publication are you from, miss? I've never told John any of this."

If anything, Stowe, 40, is even more impressed with Travolta after filming The General's Daughter, in which the two investigate the death of the title character.

"He's so nice that one day I was talking to him, and I was like, `Why don't you knock it off? No one is that nice.' But he is. He was nice every single day for four months."

Cher helps make a wish come true

All Eric Campbell had to do was Believe.

It was a dream come true for the 11-year-old boy when he got to meet his idol Cher, whose song kept him going during daily radiation treatments for an inoperable, life-threatening brain tumor.

"She thought I was good," Eric said after Cher, 53, embraced him and gave him a kiss during a concert stop in Tampa on Friday.

The boy gave the singer a tiny rose pin and a thank-you card during their meeting, made possible with help from the Fulfill a Wish Foundation.

"I like her music. I think it's good," Eric said. "And well, I think she's pretty even though she's older than my mom and dad. And gosh, my dad is like 30."

Author Tom Clancy marries journalist

Best-selling author Tom Clancy married free-lance journalist Alexandra Marie Llewellyn in New York, followed by a reception at the St. Regis hotel.

Saturday's ceremony marked the second marriage for Clancy, 52, creator of such techo-thrillers as The Hunt for Red October, Red Storm Rising and A Clear and Present Danger.

ALMANAC

It's the 179th day of the year; 186 days are left in 1999. On this date:

In 1836, James Madison, the fourth U.S. president, died in Montpelier, Va.

In 1914, Austrian Archduke Francis Ferdinand and his wife, Sofia, were assassinated in Sarajevo by a Serb nationalist -- the event that triggered World War I.

Thought for today: "The glory of each generation is to make its own precedents."